BOOK OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1699, 15 March 1913, Page 12

BOOK OF THE DAY.

" A GREAT BRITISH.SEAMAN. 'John Jervls, Lord St. Vincent. Of'late years, more especially since tlio publication of Captain (now Admiral) Mahan's.superb, tribute to'the hero of Trafalgar, we have had a perfcct flood, of books dealing'with tho life and achieve- ' ments" of "him . who; must_ always be. the most prominent figure in British naval history. Biit the brilliance of . Nelson's genius should not blind us • to the fact that there are other great names in that history, names almost equally worthy of . , honour; • cordial l welcome, therefore, is-due to Captain W. V. Anson's "Life of John' Jervis, Admiral Lord St. Vincent" (London, John Murray, 10s. 6d.). /Captain Anson had previously proved his 'duality as a naval biographer by his "Life" of his distinguished ancestor, Admiral Lord Anson, published last year. His style possesses'no literary airs, and graces, being at once simple, dignified, and yet; when occasion demands, eminently vigorous. Other "Lives"' of St. Vincent have here been, but in this case the author has enjoyed'access to hitherto unpublished ' letters 'and other biographic material. The result is a > well-written, straightforward, and most readable account of a great British seaman, who? at - a time, when too many naval and military officers had become evilly affected by the frivolities'and vices of English, society in the second half of the eighteenth century, was staunchly loyal to a very high ideal of duty, alike to his own honour and that of his sovereign and country. He may ' not . always havo been a popular man, ■ 'rattier' as haviil commander or during liis political career. His habitual gravity of tlomeanour,- the sternness with which he ■ enforced discipline, the unflinching regard for duty, 'first, second, and always, as the guiding principle of his oareer, were hardly calculated to win him the too-easily-gained applause of those who [prefer tjie softer side : of life. But to his king and his "country he wa9 an - invaluable servant, not only ,in that he did his duty faithfully and well,, but because he insisted upon the keenest and ever-present regard for efficiency in' all over whom he had control. Hfs Earlier Career, V.--; ... St.-Vincent, so" Captain Anson declares, was "the mason who built, up the solid foundation of discipline, which ' Nelson ■used so brilliantly, and without which his victories would have been almost impossible." From the very outset of his career he took; life very, seriously. Entering the navy, at the age of thirteen—he ' came of a pood old, though none too wealthy, Staffordshire family—young John .Tervis sailed on the Gloucester. for Port ' ..Royal,, .where the' vessel was 'to act' as guardship, his outfit only costing ,£2O. He was in the West Indies'from 1748 to 1754, and the .£2O was. all. he ever received, from his father. Too poor to. join in any shore festivities he spent most of his leisure in study and soon became very proficient in navigation. To follow his'.career, step b.v. step, would bo impossible in the space at my. command. Between 17,'il and 1774 ihp. saw service in the .Mediterranean, and in Canada, where.'he formed an intimate' j J but ill-fated, Wplfe,;'in'de£d,' it was..to : 'the.future hero of St.: Vincent that "Wolfe, on the night previous to the memorable battle on the Plains of Abraham, confided a miniature, of a young lady (Miss Lowther) havingi had, he said,- a foreboding he would be .' killed on the.morrow. A Stern Disciplinarian. ; . Appointed, after the battle, to the command of a leaky old sloop; the Scorpion, he proceeded to England atid was forthwith ordered to New York to convey dispatches to' General Amherst. At' Plymouth, tlie:,vessel, being clearly:-Unfit for sea (she .afterwards foundered), lie. induced the port admiral to transfer his command to tho Albany, another sloop then lying in the harbour. The vessel had lieen a long: time in - commission., arrears of pay were due ,to, the men, and they jibbed' at- . tlio ldei of-the voyage. At once Jorvis displayed that stern regard for discipline which was to bo the salient feature in his career. The crew point-blank refused to obey the order "Up anchor." Having reasoned fruitlessly'with the ring-leaders of what was practically a mutiny, he ordered his boat's crew from the Scorpion to take-hatchets and cut the oables. 2 nd se'it them aloft to loose the foresail. ' lie order was obeyed, the Albany s men gave way,and the'vessel sailed. Jiqw v st. -Vincent dealt with much more' open-and dangerous mutiny thirty-seven years later, when he lyas in command of the, fleet blockading Cadiz, Captain Anson recounts lii detail in'one of the most vig-orously-written-chapters-of a book which records many dramatic incidents. The long to quote, but -it 'shows, ; , Vincent to have enforced discipline at all hazards, at all costs, the result being that ins name and commands were Tespected and instantly obeyed from that time .forward. / His Regard for his Men. Stern disciplinarian as he 'was, he had, nevertheless.-,-a' most kindly, indeed, quite paternal sympathy for his men. He.was severe, but just, and he fully recognised that the commonest sailor-man had his ■ private rights. At .a time When letters for the; seamen of his ileet, off Cadiz, wert> arriving from the .mutinous crews at the urging the former to.take part in file mutiny, one of his captains reported t he fact to his "chief,- and asked whether they should- be withheld. "Certainly not,'■ replied St.'Vincent, "let every letter be immediately delivered. I dare to f-av the Comniamlor-Jii-Chief will know how to support his own authority." On. .another occasion the-supply ..of .tobacco running short at the port, "the price was enhanced,to such iui extent that the pursers of the ships had to curtail the sup- . ply.'. Hearing of this, St. Vincent at once ordered'the supply to be continued as usual,' and undertook to luako gobd the . excess ,from., his urivato purse. He was no man to let his generosity be trumpeted abroad, but his acts of charity towards voung and poor officers were many, and , all the more laudable in -that the benefactor was never a. rich man. His- Greatest Achievement. 1 The. story -of the -great battle from which St. Vincent took his title has been told many .a time and oft, and yet it is surely one which no Englishman, be he •- of the Motherland or a tho Greater Britain, of the Over-Seas, caii reread without a feeling of intense pride that he is of the same race -as provided the victor on that famous day, the 14th February, 1707, , when Sir John Jervis, commanding a fleet of but fifteen ships of.the line, met and completely defeated a Spanish fleet of 'twenty-seven ships of the line. When, through tho grey mist of the morning, tho captain of the fleet reported to tho Com-mander-in-Chief, slowly pacing the quar-ter-deck of'the Victory, the number of the enemy's vessels as they came into sight, the following conversation took place:— There are eight sail of the line, Sir John! "Very well, Sir!" ' ' "There are twenty sail of tho line, Sir John!" "Very well, Sir!" "There aro twenty-five sail of the line, Sir .lolm!" Very well, Sir!" "There are twenty-seven sail of the line, Sir John!" the statement being followed by a-remark on tho great disparity of the •forces, to which lie replied: "Enough, Sir!. The die is cast, and if there are .fifty sail I will go through them!" This ■sharp and decisive answer produced silence, and Captain Hailowell, who was walking with Sir John at the time, could not refrain' from clapping him on the baulc, and saying: "That's right, Sir John, that's right. By' God. we shall give them « il-—d good licking." _" And "jo. through them' Jervis dij t feel-

[ ing justified, as he says in his dispatch, "in. departing from the.regular system,, and "passing through their fleet in a line formed with, tho utmost, celerity, tacked, and thereby separated one-third from the main body," etc., etc. By p.m. ,the action had ceased, four of the largest Spanish ships were British prizes, and the Dons were once again in full flight. All fear <of iuvasion was over, and St. Vincent became a national hero. ■Last Years. For miiny years after that famous day off Cape St. Vincent did tho Admiral do splendid service for his country. He commanded off Cadiz from 1797-1799, and in the Channel from 1799 to 1801, and then becamo First 'Lord of tho Admiralty, exhibiting, in that position, a personal' industry—the stern old sea. dog was at his office at seven every morning—which must have Iwen somewhat embarrassing to the officials. In 180G, being then seventy-one, he was called upon to take-command of the Channel Fleet, but the next year obtained permission to reside on i/hore, and from this onward never returned to sea. He died on March 13, 1825. In politics 'he was a Whig, and in the House of Lords spoke, although not with fluency, always with vigour and point. In 1823 a monument was erected to him in St. Paul's, . Lord Ripon on that occasion rightly declaring that "St. Vincent ranks with' the greatest of those illustrious characters to whom the country is indebted for its glory and renown." ' . The volume contains a number of excellent portraits of St. Vincent, and.his fel-. low-oommanders, and' several facsimiles ■ of chart | diagrams .of naval engagements .'in-which St. Vincent took part. A copy of this admirable* and most interesting work should find a place in every good library. It would form a most suitable ; addition *to the" bookshelves of oun secondary schools and colleges..